The present invention relates to a physical distribution/transportation system using an autonomous pallet vehicle and an integrated physical distribution system including the physical distribution/transportation system, a sales system, a manufacturing system and a material supply system.
There has been proposed a shuttle highway system as a transportation system using autonomous pallet vehicles ("The Shuttle Highway System" Proceeding Of The Second World Congress on Intelligent Transport System Vol. Vpp 2203-2212, 1995). In the shuttle highway system, there are arranged a plurality of interchanges, which are connected to each other via dedicated transportation lines, on which a dedicated autonomous pallet vehicle travels. Gateways from and to the interchanges are respectively connected to ordinary roads. A vehicle from an ordinary road enters the interchange from the gateway thereto and is loaded onto a pallet vehicle at the interchange. The pallet vehicle is utilized between that interchange and a destination interchange, and the pallet vehicle travels at high speed along the transportation line. At the destination interchange, the vehicle is unloaded from the pallet vehicle and is returned to an ordinary road from the gateway from the interchange and the vehicle travels to a destination on the ordinary road. In such a system, since the high-speed pallet vehicle is utilized between the interchanges, an advantage of reduced movement time in moving by a vehicle is obtained.
The above-described system for transporting vehicles is effective in transportation of vehicles. Although such a high speed transportation system has been requested not only in the field of vehicle transportation but also in the field of physical distribution systems for delivering cargoes, it is difficult to apply the shuttle system as it is to a physical distribution system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel physical distribution/transportation system utilizing an autonomous pallet vehicle.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel integrated physical distribution system including the fields of sales, manufacturing and physical distribution/transportation.